_Database Case Sensitivity for Collation

'Collation' refers to a set of rules that determine how data is sorted and compared. Case sensitivity is one aspect of collation. Other aspects include sensitivity to kana (Japanese script) and to width (single versus double byte characters).

Case sensitive or case insensitive collation – how should you create your Confluence database? What about when you are migrating your existing Confluence instance from one database to another?

Setting up a New Confluence Instance

For new Confluence instances, we recommend using case sensitive collation for your Confluence database. This is the default collation type used by many database systems.

Note: Even if the database is configured for case sensitive collation, Confluence reduces all usernames to lower case characters before storing them in the database. For example, this means that 'joebloggs', 'joeBloggs' and 'JoeBloggs' will be treated as the same username.

Migrating an Existing Confluence Instance to a Different Database

The default Confluence Standalone configuration uses case sensitive database collation. This is typical of databases created under default conditions. If you are migrating from this type of configuration to a new database, we recommend that the new database uses case sensitive collation. If you use case insensitive collation, you may encounter data integrity problems after migration (for example, via an XML import) if data stored within your original Confluence site required case sensitive distinctions.